“Restaurants, in particular,” Brady said. “A company can go out of business if they don’t understand the power of a bad story or a negative issue that can go viral. And it’s so much more complicated now with social media.”

Know your audience:

In the case of the MERS outbreak, you have different silos of people you need to communicate with. In this case, that includes, literally, everyone in the four-county region. Sure, if you’ve been on a plane with Patient Zero, you’ve probably already been contacted and talked to. But everyone who set foot in the emergency room, or handed Patient Zero a McMuffin? That's harder to track.

So in this case, the media — that’s me! — is a communication mechanism to get the word out. But, Brady said, we’re also one of the audiences, as well. Employees who may be worried about being exposed is another group, as are the different governmental bodies that you're going to be required to report to. You get the idea. And each silo needs a tailored message: The Centers for Disease Control doesn't need to know the symptoms of MERS, for example, but the general public is going to need the MERS 101.

When you smell it, check your own shoes first:

Speaking of audiences, there's one audience that's often neglected, Brady said: The internal one. Don’t forget that employees are the face of your company, and if they don’t know what’s going on, that could be an issue for you. So make sure your employees know things first, ideally, before it comes out on the news. Same thing goes for making sure customers know things ahead of time, too, if the situation calls for it.

Related links:

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.